"Aw, Papa Knut, do we really have to wear the funny hats?"

Hi, folks

Just want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Festivus, or whatever celebration you may be be enjoying over the coming days from all us little furballs at the good ol' Compass Center. Many thanks for helping make 2007 a fantastic year (not just a bear-able one) for us and remember that we're hoping our journeys will continue to joyfully interweave in the coming year.

All the best to you and yours.

~Your friendly Compass Staff

P.S. Don't forget to check out the Compass Alumni networking website - we're currently at about 50 fine member folks and getting stronger every day.

P.P.S. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for word of a full-scale Compass Reunion currently being bandied about for some time in February.

Message from Captain Stubing

Hey, gang

Just wanted to send a note and make sure everyone got their email invitation to join the Compass Alumni networking website this week (occasionally, such things wind up in spam folders and the like). If, for some reason, you didn't receive one, please email me and I'll try again. The site's usefulness really increases as more people join so we're really hoping for a good turn-out.

For those of you who have already signed up (at post time, nearly 40 and counting), here are a few suggestions to make the site more useful and efficient:

1. Invite some people to be your "friends" by using the "Add as friend" tab under their picture on their profile page. Managing your friends (including accepting friend requests from others) is done using the "little person" icon in the upper left-hand corner of any page. Becoming friends (besides being kind of friendly-like) allows you to connect more easily using the Message Center, accessed by clicking the "postal letter" icon in the upper left-hand corner of any page. It's a pretty smooth way to communicate back and forth so feel free to send me a test message if you want to see how the system works (I should already be in your "Address book").

2. Create a sub-group for the folks you went through Compass with by using the "Groups" tab and following the "Create a New Group" prompts. Include the date you attended the program together (or some other form of identifying details) so your peeps will know where to find you and then invite anyone already on-site to join (or even encourage those not yet signed up to do so).

3. Go ahead and post under the discussion Forums. Ask for networking contacts in your field of interest (in the Networking Opportunities section), post a job you think might be of interest to someone else (in the Job Postings section, naturally), write a brief summary of someone you know (or, better yet, yourself!) who's working on purpose (in the People on Purpose section), and just let fly with something random in the Flotsam and Jetsam category.

I personally offer a prize of one of them fancy coffees as a reward (sorry, Marshall) for the first person who posts something in the Forum section.

Other than that, I hope you'll continue to peruse the site features, connect with some new people (ie. try the "Search" function at the top-right of any page to find folks with similar interests, Myers-Briggs, or career aspirations), and let me know if there's anything I can do to help out.

Keep your eyes peeled and fingers at the ready, all.

~CB

Beyond Guided Imagery

For those who would be interested in trying a guided imagery in hypnosis, feel free to join us on Wed Dec 12th at 5:30 pm.

The imagery will be about letting go of what you no longer need. Please note that we start at 5:30 sharp and the doors are locked when we start.

Never too early to unwrap something this shiny!

Hi, gang

After countless hours of consideration, reconsideration, praying, and weeping in a corner, we're nearly ready to launch [dum, da, da, dum!] our Compass Alumni Networking Website [insert appropriate awestruck sound effects]. The intention is to provide easier and more direct access to the vast array of experience, wisdom, insight, and humour collectively encompassed in our esteemed and ever-growing program alumni with the hopes that facilitating these interconnections will help everyone git along a little more swiftly in our respective journeys. We've chosen to use a platform called Ning (which is vaguely modeled after Facebook) that is designed to be user-friendly (ie. less intimidating to technophobes such as myself) so hopefully you'll find the set-up and usage relatively straightfoward but, if anything is unclear, please send me a note and I'll do my best to work it out.

A couple of quick notes regarding official stuff:
1. Membership on the site will be for Compass participants (past and present) only.

2. Please use your best discretion with regards to language, content, and general decorum (in keeping with the ethos of your Compass experience) when using the site.

3. You will soon be receiving an email invitation from me (Compass Bill) to "Come join me on North Shore Compass Alumni". Just follow the attached link and the very simple registration procedure and I'll send a confirmation of your membership when everything is in order (hopefully the same day). You will then have a profile you can customize and have access to all the features of the site.

4. This site is considered a work-in-progress so it will likely evolve throughout the coming months to best address the needs of our members. If you have any bright ideas on how to improve things, please send them my way and I'll check with someone smarter than I as to whether it's possible.

Last thing (for those of you still reading), the Alumni site will eventually take the place of this Feedblitz/Blogger service as a means to keeping in touch so, if you'd like to continue to receive all the usual updates, please sign up. Otherwise, we risk losing touch and that's something we're not keen to do.

Looking forward to a whole new avenue for our amazing Compassitos and Compassitas to discover what we at Compass see confirmation of each month - that the collective quality of people who pass through the yellow walls each month is simply second-to-none and that there are no limits to what feats such quality folks can achieve when given the support of like-minded types.

Keep your eyes peeled and fingers at the ready, all.

~B